Going from musical theatre to electro-pop, starring in a McCartney video along the way, this songwriter’s on an exciting journey

Name: Ariana DiLorenzo

Location: New York, USA

Style: Kylie-esque synth-pop

Look out for: Catchy single Heartbeat out now and the EP coming in early 2014

Under the spotlight for our latest Introducing feature here is an act consisting of Italian-American singer-songwriter Ariana DiLorenzo, and her backing band, The Rose. With both parents being well-known swimwear designers, Ariana grew up in New York City’s fashion world. However, it was the theatre stage, rather than the catwalk, that would attract the young DiLorenzo, who was perfoming in Broadway musicals by the age of 11 years old, before going on to the Professional Performing Arts School Manhattan.

She hadn’t pursued the idea of writing pop music professionally: “I was only writing songs for fun at that time, which I think helped cultivate a relationship with my own music. I could be super-personal, because for so long I didn’t share it with people.”

But, after studying at NYU’s famous Tisch School of the Arts (whose notable alumni include Lady Gaga), Ariana began working with music producers and, at the age of 21, was inspired to pursue a career as a songwriter. She would end up writing toplines and demos for other singers for “everything from hip-hop to dance,” and, although she didn’t realise it at the time, was effectively in training, “I was learning how to be in the studio and work with other writers.”

More recently, with concert pianist Vera Tisheff as her mentor, Ariana has been able to cultivate her own sound and style, and was encouraged by Tisheff to study opera and classical composition. “We went back to basics with composers like Vivaldi and Bellini,” explains Ariana, “I still write pop music, but it influences how you structure songs and look at chord progressions and inversions.”

Asked about her true musical heroes, she unsurprisingly reveals a lot more pop: “I love Alanis Morrissette, for her honesty in her writing; Robyn and Kylie – people have been able to reinvent themselves in a current way. I love synth music, so it’s fun to apply a more traditionalist look at songwriting to electronic music.”

Ariana & The Rose is still very much based in New York, but they’re regularly found hopping from city to city; recently co-writing in LA, off to Sweden for another writing session, and now the UK’s capital is becoming a favourite destination… “I’m here every six weeks or so – I feel like I’m cheating on New York with London! We’ve played London Fashion Week and a Breakout showcase for Music Week.”

As if it wasn’t exciting enough to be rubbing shoulders with catwalk models, designers and celebrities in the the world of fashion, this year Ariana was asked to star in a music video for none-other-than Sir Paul McCartney. Her response was: “I was like, ‘I’m free!’ Kind of a stupid question.” She even got to meet the ex-Beatle and talk to him about songwriting: “He just loves what he does so much and you can tell. He said, ‘Aren’t we so lucky that we get to do this?’ For a new artist, it was such an honour.”

And so, endowed with a diverse set of influences and the wise words of an ex-Beatle in their ears, Ariana & The Rose is primed for mainstream pop success and a blossoming music career.

Ariana & The Rose are currently on an acoustic tour with Heffron Drive in the United States, the single Heartbeat is out now (watch the video below), with an EP coming in the beginning of 2014, and a full-length album in the making. Keep an eye on Ariana at her official website: arianaandtherose.com and on her Twitter profile: twitter.com/arianatherose